Ganguly holds Zvjaginsev to a draw

February 18, 2005 18:50 IST

National champion and Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly gave another solid display and held higher rated GM Vadim Zvjaginsev of Russia to a draw in the third round of the Aeroflot International open chess tournament in Moscow, on Friday.

International Master Dinesh Kumar Sharma registered a couple of victories for the Indian contingent in the 'B' Group.

Sharma, who started badly with 0.5 out of 2, accounted for Chouchanik Airapetian of the US in the first game of the day and then in the second game put it across Russia's Ahmet Hazauri to move to 2.5 out of 4.

In the 'A1' section, the toughest event of USD 175000 prize money tournament, Grandmasters Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Andrei Kharlov of Russia emerged as joint leaders maintaining a clean slate with three points in as many rounds.

Ivanchuk was more impressive in handing Russian Sergey Volvok his first defeat in the event, while Kharlov had it easy in a long drawn game against compatriot Aleksei Lugovoi.

As many as 10 players including Emil Sutovsky of Israel and former champion Viktor Bologan of Moldova remained on the heels of the leaders half a point behind, while another pack of 22 is another half point adrift.

Ganguly and Chanda, with 1.5 points in their bags so far, are next in line along with 34 others. Six rounds still remain in this event that carries the winner's pure of USD 30000.

Amongst the Indians, Chanda, like Ganguly, settled for his third draw on the trot in the event after sharing honours with Russian GM Alexander Riazantsev.

Krishnan Sasikiran, the second highest rated player of the country after Viswanathan Anand, continued to struggle in the event even though he opened his account with a draw against veteran GM Oleg Romanishin of Ukraine.

In the 'A2' section Grandmaster Tejas Bakre was held to a draw by International Master Tarvo Seeman of Estonia and former Asian junior girls' champion Tania Sachdev's quest for the final Women Grandmaster norm suffered a blow as she lost her second successive game, going down to Jaroslav Ulko of Russia.

Women Grandmaster Eesha Karvade and S Kidambi came out with their first draws in the event signing peace with Spyridon Kapnisis of Greece and Yuriy Ajrapetjan of Ukraine respectively while young IM norm holder Parimarjan Negi held IM Nadezhda Kosintseva of Russia to a draw.

Ganguly once again did not face any difficulties with black pieces against a higher seeded opponent. It was a closed Ruy Lopez wherein Zvjaginsev failed to impress in all departments of the game.

Early in the opening, Zvjaginsev went for trade of two minor pieces and thereafter energetic play by Ganguly ensured there was no danger.

Sacrificing a pawn temporarily to activate his pieces, Zvjaginsev had to agree to the draw when repetition of the position became imminent.